The number of sets and different locations on board Red Dwarf that are visited / seen in series VIII really gives the ship a massive sense of scale that we haven’t really seen before or since I don’t think.

There’s a number of different cargo bays (the one starbug crashes in, the one the dinosaur is in, the one the potatoes are in, launch pads, old bunk rooms, various different offices, bathrooms, showers, captains office, Ackerman’s quarters, the Captain’s quarters, a number of different medical rooms (the one Kryten has is nuts removed, the one Rimmer gets the numbing agent from, the one Lister and Rimmer have their stomach pumped in). There’s the psychiatrist office, Lister’s holding cell and then later on the hold. The room Kryten is re-programmed in, in VR suites, the storage cupboard/room they get Dibbly costumes in. Plus all the different Tank sets, from bunks, to the communal area where Holister/Ackerman addresses inmates, the mess, the basketball court, the cinema.

Usually we see 3, maybe 4 areas of the ship in a series, showing the crew contain themselves to one small area of the vast vessel. Series VIII really opens that up for the first time and we get to see so much more of the ship, making it feel like a huge, old, working, vessel.

They sold it well enough in the earlier series through minimal sets and off-screen mentions/intimations.

Rimmer’s off-screen days-long ramble through the diesel decks, the torturously long Xpress Lift journey, the cobwebbed corridors on the way to the Cat Priest and all the establishing shots/flyovers of Red Dwarf were more effective for me than VIII’s forgettable redressed sets that didn’t feel like they were part of anything.

The only thing I remember feeling this way about in VIII was seeing the train in the trailer, because it was a thing from the books.

the cockpit is squashed and not connected to the mid section where in III to VII you had classic moments going between the two parts of starbug – obviously space is the issue which is why i’d shrink the science room…..though it’s probably not as simple as that

If they can push XIII’s budget into making more ship sets, I’d be very happy. I do like the scale of VIII, it generally gives the feeling of a working ship, even if the lighting is a bit dodgy. Obviously the bunk room, science room and Starbug take up most of the stage, but I’m sure there’s a way they could use the space to show more of the ship, even if it’s a case of redressing things. There’s a lot of redressing done in I and II, and frankly, it works really well. To me, the ship feels biggest in those series than in the other non-VIII series.

Series XII makes the ship feel more spacious than Series VIII. In Series VIII you get things like the warehouse where the dinosaur walks around, but it doesn’t feel like the inside of the ship, it feels like somewhere else entirely. There’s less coherence there. Series XII feels very coherent and it’s brilliant at subtle things like reusing corridors in a way that you don’t notice.